These daredevils scale skyscrapers to take photos from dizzying heights

03/13/2016

Take a look at some of the team's craziest shots below

So-called "rooftoppers" are adventure-seekers who climb staggering heights to see some of the world’s most incredible views.

Ivan Semenov is a Russian rooftopper who has risked crazy heights with his friends, Kirill Oreshkin and Angelina Nikolau, to capture unbelievable shots across Russia, Hong Kong, and Dubai.

Semenov started working on his craft back in 2013, after seeing photos of Moscow that were taken from a bird's eye view. He decided he could easily do the same.

Today, he's visited almost all of the major high-rise buildings and structures in Russia, scaling abandoned and towering buildings to capture stunning views.

While the work is risky, the team calculates which climbs they known they can make to capture some amazing and dangerous photos.

Climbing frightening heights allows them to experience completely new views of a city, like in this image of Nikolau posing on a construction crane of a skyscraper in Moscow.

They've scaled the cranes of Moscow's Mirax Plaza building, which rises over 40 floors. To capture this photo, Nikolau and the team climbed more than 780 feet above the crane, giving them the opportunity to witness a magnificent view of the sun setting over the city.

Here, they scaled 462 feet to the top of the Victory Monument in Russia.

Part of the fun is discovering and exploring abandoned structures, like this radio tower in Russia. This perspective took a staggering 1,148-foot climb to reach, but was worth it for the lush scenery they saw below.

This extreme shot was taken from the top of the Red Gates Administrative Building, one of seven skyscrapers in Moscow that was designed in the Stalinist style. It rises about 400 feet into the sky.

They've snapped stunning photos of Moscow's skyline from rooftops as high as 990 feet.

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The team has also been to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Moscow, another Stalinist skyscraper. According to Semenov, this building was the most heavily guarded structure that they have been able to successfully ascend.

For some members, part of the thrill comes from getting around the security in buildings. This selfie was taken from a crane at the Mirax Plaza building in Moscow at a height of around 780 feet.

They also climbed up the cranes that were used to build Moscow's Evolution Tower, a skyscraper that rises in a spiral design.

In this photo, Nikolau can be seen laying at the edge of a roof from a height of 341 feet. In the background is a stunning shot of Moscow.

They've also been to the top of the tallest apartment complex in all of Europe — Moscow's Triumph Palace — taking this selfie at a height of 879 feet.

From apartment complexes in Moscow, they've captured insane photos like this one of Nikolau hanging on one arm at a height of 460 feet.

Besides Moscow, they've also traveled to destinations like Hong Kong, where they captured this epic bird's eye perspective of the city from the One Island East skyscraper, at a height of 970 feet.